June 16/17 20:25 pm - No Changes to Tour de Beauce GC After Stage 3B

Posted by Editoress on 06/16/17

There were few changes to the standings at the Tour de Beauce after a short 77 kilometre stage on Friday evening. Christopher Lawless (Axeon Hagens Berman) won the stage when a few members of an early breakaway managed to stay away to the finish. The top riders in the general classification all maintained their positions, with Alec Cowan (Silber Pro Cycling) retaining the Yellow Jersey and the Best Young Rider Jersey. He lost the Points Jersey to Taylor Eisenhart (Holowesko-Citadel), but Nigel Ellsay (Silber Pro Cycling) kept the Climber's Jersey.

There were attacks immediately after the flag was dropped at the end of the neutral start. Within 10 kilometres a group of 18 had formed at the front, with only Andzs Flaksis (Holowesko-Citadel) a GC threat, and he was more than two minutes back. Silber went to the front to set tempo and, as the gap went over a minute, they were joined by Team St-Etienne p/b ProBikeShop.

The gap came down slowly as the front group splintered due to the high speed but was still at 23 seconds when the remaining leaders hit the 18% final 200 metre climb. Sepp Kuss (Rally Cycling) attacked on the climb but was overtaken by Lawless and Steve Fisher (Canyon Bicycle) before the finish line.

Cowan finished 1:09 down on the leaders, but lost no time to his top rivals, and padded his lead over Jordan Cheyne (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis) to 22 seconds, while Jack Burke (Aevolo) stayed at 31 seconds.

Racing moves to Quebec City on Saturday for a criterium stage before the Tour de Beauce concludes on Sunday with a circuit race in host town St-Georges.